Spam phone calls have increased to epidemic levels, but more Americans are taking action.
A new study shows nearly 240 million Americans are now registered on the Do Not Call list and New Jersey ranks No. 6 for the most numbers registered per capita with 93,339 registrations per 100,000 people.
A 2019 report from the Federal Communications Commission found that nearly half of all calls made to cell phones are spam.
SafeHome.org this week released a study on this epidemic titled Don’t Call Us; We’ll Call You after analyzing the FTC’s National Do Not Call Registry data from 2015-2019.
The study examines how many phone numbers are registered in each state, the number of complaints and the types of complaints by state.
Here are key findings in New Jersey:
- No. 6 in registrations per 100,000 people, 84,678
- No. 42 in change in registrations (FY2015-FY2019), +6.5%.
- No. 5 in complaints, 2,188.
- No. 43 in change in complaints (FY2015-FY2019), +37.8%.
Here are key national findings:
- The 10 states with the highest registration rates are New Hampshire, District of Columbia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Jersey, Kansas, Vermont, Wyoming and Wisconsin.
- The 10 states with the lowest registration rates are Alaska, Texas, Mississippi, Hawaii, South Carolina, Louisiana, Utah, Indiana, Arizona and Nevada.
- All states have seen active Do Not Call registrations increase over the past five years, with the overall number of registrations rising 7.7% nationally.
- Complaints fell between 2018 and 2019 but have risen by around 50% since 2014.
- Robocalls have climbed from 59% of complaints in FY2015 to 70% of complaints in FY2019.
